


Three of a Kind

by VeraBAdler



Series: April 2019 challenges [19]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Internalized Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 12:20:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18521416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeraBAdler/pseuds/VeraBAdler
Summary: Two dumb idiots who don't know how to communicate with each other develop secret code to save their love. Thanks, Sam.Prompt: Gaming together





	Three of a Kind

It was rough after they first got together.

Castiel was starting from zero on the ins and outs of being in a human relationship. He struggled to grasp the arbitrary boundaries that society and the hunter culture placed on public behavior. Meanwhile, his newly-human body was assailing him nonstop with needs and drives and _hungers_ of all sorts, making his heart race and his skin tingle. Losing his wings hadn't caused him to grow a sense of tact, either. He was still honest to the point of bluntness, and his words often came with no filter.

Dean, on the other hand, was basically all filter. He was also still dragging around about three metric fucktons of emotional baggage about _How A Real Man Acts_ , and the evergreen _Who A Real Man Is Allowed To Love_. He was generally on the edge of a panic attack whenever they stepped out of the Bunker together.

It became a vicious pattern. They'd stop at a diner after a hunt, or go out for nachos and a few racks of pool at the bar down in Lebanon. Then they'd have to cut the evening short after _yet another_ fight over Cas getting affectionate and Dean reliving his Big Gay Panic, _again_.

Cas became depressed. To watch his beloved recoil from his touch was heart-wrenchingly painful. He withdrew, doubting his instincts and doubting Dean's love.

Dean, for all his experience with willing waitresses and flirty morgue attendants, is no expert in working through differences in communication style with a lover. He took Cas's withdrawal as proof that he isn't worthy of love. He became depressed in turn.

In the end, after Sam locked them in the dungeon together for seven hours and made them sort their shit out, they made up the Game of Three. The game is simple: three things together means “I love you”. Dean can rarely bring himself to say it out loud, and he can't always bear to hear Cas say it out loud when they're away from the Bunker. But wherever they are, whatever they're doing, three taps to the back of the hand or three squeezes of a knee under the table is a message sent, and a message received.

At first, Cas was skeptical. Those times he wants to throw his arms around his love and proclaim his devotion to the world, would it be enough instead to nudge their feet together three times?

But whatever he's had to pay in self-restraint, he's been rewarded a million times over. Suddenly, Dean is telling him “I love you” _all the time_. Three squeezes on his shoulder as Dean hands him his coffee in the morning. Three pats on his butt when they pass each other at a crime scene. Three perfect french fries moved from Dean's plate to his at the diner. Three shots of good tequila lined up in front of him at the bar. Three taps on the coffee table in a witness's living room.

One night Cas reaches out in their bed, awake and anxious in the dark after a disturbing dream, and squeezes Dean's shoulder three times. Without waking, without a change in the rhythm of his soft snores, Dean taps Cas's hand three times in response. Cas wraps his arms around his beloved and pulls their bodies close. He falls back to sleep, safe and warm in the certainty that he loves and is loved in return.

**Author's Note:**

> Wooo, my brain refused to come up with anything to fit this prompt. In the end, I pulled out an old [prompt idea](http://brighteyedbadwolf.tumblr.com/post/170643725942/imagine-having-a-child-that-refuses-to-hug-you-or) I had saved and twisted it to fit my needs.
> 
> Rebloggable link for this fic on tumblr is [here](https://blessyourhondahurley.tumblr.com/post/184295658211/april-19-game-verabadler-supernatural).


End file.
